Stressed...

I cannot wait until this week is over!! Moving is so stressful...even if it is just across the hall! I spent half the morning changing my address with all my credit cards and magazines. I feel that as easy as moving across the hall may seem it is going to be a logistical nightmare with the mail. My mailman already has a hard time getting the right mail in the right box, I can't imagine how confused he is going to be now! We are hoping to get all settled in by Sunday night so we can have people over for the Super Bowl.

I have also spent the morning ordering supplies, more supplies!!! I am going to be making lip balms so I had to order all of the ingredients for that! I ALWAYS have chapped lips, especially in the winter and no matter what kind of lip balm I buy, it never seems to make them any better so I have been doing a lot of research to find the best ingredients for dry, chapped lips and I am really excited about what I have found. Stay tuned to the shop next week for some new products. I will be listing a new soap, Sandalwood Vanilla. This is such a great scent, Mike loves it. It's completely unisex and it smells amazing. I am also going to be listing a really cute new gift set. I also hope to get my packaging designs for my new products done so I can get those listed too. The cream soap should be finished curing this weekend so I can't wait to see how it turned out.

You know who you look like?!

Ever heard those dreaded words?! Sometimes I'm scared to hear what's going to follow after I hear someone utter "You know who you look like?" No, who...Gene Simmons...Sloth from Goonies?! Who?!

After reading blog posts by Betz, Anna Maria, and Beki about people they've been told they look like I thought I would hop on the bandwagon and share who I've been told I look like! (Luckily no one has ever seen a resemblance between me and Sloth!)

So I know everyone knows who Claire Danes is, and back when she was doing the show My So Called Life I was told by a few people, including my mom that I looked like her. I never quite saw the resemblance!



The other one I get all the time is Juliette Lewis...I really don't see it but I have had so many people tell me that I look like her!



So tell me, who have you been told you look like?

My Awesome Weekend

I had such a great weekend and I was super productive! I tried out a couple new recipes with much success (whew!) I got to test out a new fragrance oil I have been dying to work with, Kumquat...can I just say, it is awesome!! I love, love, love the scent. I made a body wash and a cream soap with it. The cream soap will be ready in 7 days and I cannot wait to try it! I hope to be adding all this new stuff to the shop in the next few weeks.

I also got my new Burton jacket, it's so cool! It has this awesome pocket for your ipod and it is super warm! After we picked up my jacket we had tea, coffee and dessert at Veniero's, one of our favorite little Italian bakeries in the E. Village.



On Sunday night we went to see Kathy Griffin at the Garden, a Xmas gift from Mike. I know a lot of people don't like her but I love her and the show was AWESOME! I could not stop laughing! All in all it was a GREAT weekend!

Amazon is my new best friend!

There are so many benefits to living in New York City...not having to drive (I hate driving!), being able to have anything you want delivered at any time of day, and the most important...living near an Amazon shipping facility! I ordered two books from Amazon yesterday afternoon, chose the free shipping and the books got here today, 1 day later!!! I ordered the Petit Pattern Book: Japanese Style. I want to incorporate some of the patterns into my packaging and the book gives you a CD rom to use with Photoshop and Illustrator. The book is so amazing, I love the patterns! Now I want to buy the rest of the books in the series but they are pricey so I guess I will just start out with this one!

New Ideas

Most of the supplies I ordered last week are here so now I am anxious to get started on some of my new recipes. I will be busy this weekend!! I've been perusing the web all day reading blogs and getting inspiration for Kopah. I stumbled across some really neat sites and found some fun new things I want to try. I am not ready to share yet but will keep you posted on my ideas soon! I'm really excited about them though, it will be fun to try some new things with soap!

On a different note, I am super excited because I got a coupon in the mail (actually Mike got the coupon but I am stealing it, sorry baby!) for Princeton Ski Shops. The coupon is for 35% off of any single item of clothing. I have my eye on this awesome Burton jacket so I called today thinking there was no way it was going to be good for Burton ski jackets in the middle of the season and they told me it was! So we are going this weekend to get it, yeah!!

Fun weekend

Philly was so much fun, we had a blast. I had no idea how much there is to see there! It was sooo cold. On Sunday I had two pairs of gloves on and my hands were in my pocket and I was still freezing! We hit up the Urban Outfitters near our hotel and they were having an awesome sale on bed spreads so I grabbed a few for the fabric. Now I need to think about how I am going to use them!

Ever since we had PeeWee pose for my doggy soap he jumps in front of the camera everytime we pull it out, he's such a model!! So here he is sampling the new fabric...


Here's the fabric after I removed PeeWee (and he still manages to get his nose in the photo!)


Here's a picture of me walking down one of the oldest roads in Philly...


And on a completely different note, we just found out we are moving out of our apartment!! This is good and bad news. I LOVE my apartment, aside from the obvious space issues, it is so adorable and it has a washer and dryer inside the unit which is unheard of in Manhattan but with the non-stop noise coming from overhead it has never been enjoyable to be in the apartment! Our across the hall neighbors are moving out and because our landlord appreciates our noise issue, they are allowing us to move across the hall. Yeah landlord!! The apartment is a little bit bigger and has a lot more storage but isn't as cute :( and is without a washer and dryer so I guess I will have to join the masses and send my laundry out from now on! We will be able to move as early as next week so we are really excited and sad at the same time. At least now our weekend mornings will be quiet and we won't have to wait until naptime to enjoy a quiet and peaceful apartment!

Lots of Random Things

I just received some yummy tea from Serendipitea. It's so good! I'm afraid to bring it home though because Mike keeps getting mad at me for not drinking all the tea we have at home so I guess this will stay at work! I also just ordered some tea from Saks Fifth Avenue mainly because I wanted the tin! I had seen an article in Blueprint about using tea tins for makeup brushes and cotton balls, etc. and the picture they showed had all these beautiful colored tins from Le Palais Des Thes and I looked them up and the tea is French and really expensive so for Christmas I got a gift certificate from Saks so I decided to splurge and buy the tin. Hopefully the tea will be good too!

Today I ordered a ton of supplies for Kopah. I am so excited for all the new things I plan to add to the shop over the next few months!!

I also wanted to share this cool new blog I found over the weekend. Big City, Little Kitchen is about a girl living in Manhattan and the challenges she faces in cooking in a tiny apartment. She also blogs about fun places to eat in the city and lots of other cooking type things! Very fun read!

This weekend

Well Mike and I decided on a whim last night to go to Philadelphia for the weekend. Neither of us have ever been and since we have Monday we off we don't really want to hang around the city all weekend. Plus Mike got Garmin for Christmas and I think he is really eager to use it!! We always rent one with our rental cars and it is such a lifesaver so my mom got it for him for Christmas! I'm looking forward to getting away for the weekend and ordering room service, my favorite part of staying at a hotel :) If anyone knows of any cool spots in Philly let us know before Saturday morning!

Productive

Aside from a migraine Saturday night I had a nice weekend. I cleaned on Friday, I am embarrassed to say how long it had been since my apartment had a good cleaning! I also came to the conclusion that we do not have enough space! After all the things we got for Christmas and my every growing supply of supplies for Kopah, I am running out of nooks and crannies to store/hide/smoosh everything. Luckily our lease is up in May and because of the two small children who live above us that I'm convinced are training for the NY marathon, we are not staying in this apartment so we are hoping to find something with a little more space which is a nice thought but unlikely in Manhattan!

I also worked on some new items for Kopah which I am so excited about. I made whipped shea butter in Lavender Orange. I love the way it turned out, it smells amazing. I have super dry skin, especially in the winter so I have been using it on my legs and I haven't had any problems since I started using it. I am totally hooked! Now I just have to come up with a label for it and I can get it listed. I made a lot of soap this weekend too, including a large batch of Lavender Cream which didn't come out the way I wanted. I hate when I botch a batch of soap.

Soap Drying...


I had to sneak this one in, Mike took this on Christmas Day

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last couple of days, I have been super busy. I have everything for Alaska booked, yeah!! Even though it is far away (September) everything books up super fast since the season only lasts 3 1/2 months. Now I see why people use travel agents! Booking everything yourself is exhausting when you are doing so many different activities and going to so many places! But I just finished up the last of the bookings today, it's going to be such a blast!

I am doing lots of research for Kopah, hoping to add lots of new products over the next few months. I have so many supplies at home for things to make and I just haven't gotten around to sitting down with my recipes and working on them. Sometimes it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day.

Happy Friday everyone!

New Year, New Ideas, New Look

I am so excited, I just placed a huge order with my supplier and I have a lot of new products in the works including an organic body wash, and lots of fun Valentines Day stuff...I can't wait to get started on everything!

I am also considering new packaging for my soaps. I love my packaging but I am finding that it doesn't hold up well in the mail and I don't think it would ever be suitable for sale in stores and one of my goals this year is to establish more wholesale accounts. I have a couple of ideas that I am playing around with, I just need to consult with my "creative director" a.k.a Mike to see what he thinks :)

I'm also sitting here twiddling my thumbs waiting for all the cool stuff I ordered online last week to get here....why is the mail so slow!!

Planning

Mike and I had such a relaxing weekend, it was just what I needed to get back into the swing of things. We went to the farmers market in Union Square to get fruits and veggies to juice with. One of our resolutions is to start juicing again. I love the farmers market in the winter...everyone is selling cider and donuts, yum! I have a bit of the shopping bug as well, I can't seem to stop spending! We went to Urban Outfitters which I haven't shopped in for years, I bought a ridiculously overpriced scarf and now it's 50 degrees outside and I can't even wear it :(

Mike and I started planning our trip to Alaska this summer. I haven't been back in 14 years so I am sooo excited. It's going to be a blast, we are going to Kodiak (where I am from) and spending a few days there and then we are flying to an inlet of Kodiak which you can only get to by boat or float plane and we are going to do fishing, kayaking, and bear/wildlife watching. Then we will fly back to Anchorage and take the Alaksan Railroad to Denali where we will camp for a night in the park and then we will head back to Anchorage to go home. I can't wait to show Mike where I grew up, it's going to be so weird to see how much the island has changed!

This is Three Saints Bay in Kodiak, pretty amazing huh?

Freezing!

It is so friggin cold outside today! The wind is unbearable, it's miserable to even be outside. Luckily it is supposed to warm up again over the next few days.

I have had no motivation since I have been back from vacation. It is so hard to get back into any kind of schedule after being away for so long. My apartment looks like a tornado went through it, there is crap everywhere and I have to get it cleaned up because my mom is shipping two huge boxes of stuff I couldn't bring back from Florida with me and I have no idea where I am going to put everything! Ah, the joy of small spaces! I am hoping that this weekend I can get some much needed rest and hopefully get back on track with life! I have totally been neglecting Kopah and my resolution to eat better (I had chips and a tootsie roll for lunch today!) I just can't seem to get back into the swing of things!

Happy New Year!

Happy new year everyone!! I've been back from Florida for a few days but then we had friends in town this weekend so I haven't had a chance to blog. My vacation was great, totally relaxing and just what I needed! I did a ton of shopping and relaxing, I even got to lay out in the sun! I finished reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Such a great book, I have been perusing Amazon to check out other books by the author because I love the way this book was written. I'm being lazy today, there are a million things to do and the only thing I want to do is sit on the couch and watch episodes of Felicity (I have the shows on DVD!) I have a little bit of the post-holiday blahs! I am missing my family and wishing I had just a couple more days off of work. I am hoping by the weekend I will have my motivation back but now I feel like I may be coming down with the flu...I am breaking out the Airborn right now! I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday celebrations! Here's to a great year!